Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the
first decade of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Zambia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how
some manage to leave the street.
Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the
public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each
other. Would you like to write about
market children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Lufwanyama
Villagers Riot Over Street Kids Rodgers Kalero,
Times of streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/category/1/africa/zambia-streetkid-news/page/2/ [accessed 15 January
2017] Irate villagers in
Lufwanyama district damaged three Government vehicles and injured two
policemen when they ran amok over Katembula Training centre street children
who are allegedly terrorising people. The villagers in Chief
Shimukunami’s area got incensed when their traditional ruler tried to calm
them down during a meeting with Government officials, who included Copperbelt
Permanent Secretary, Jennifer Musonda. The street children had fled the
training centre, following hostility from the villagers.The villagers had
risen against the youths and were demanding that they be taken away because
they were allegedly harassing women and other people. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/zambia.htm [accessed 17 January
2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Because HIV/AIDS claims the lives of many adults in the
country, a growing number of orphans have been forced to migrate to urban
areas, increasing the population of street children. In order to
survive, many orphans engage in various forms of work. Street children are especially vulnerable
to commercial sexual exploitation, and the problem of child prostitution is
widespread in [4288] In the city of Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61599.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] CHILDREN
-
There were approximately 1 million children under the age of 15 in the
country who were orphaned, approximately 750 thousand of these as a result of
HIV/AIDS. These children faced greater risks of child abuse, sexual abuse,
and child labor. Approximately 75 percent of all households were caring for
at least one orphan, and children headed approximately 7 percent of
households due to the death of both parents. The government instituted
programs to increase public awareness of HIV/AIDS. There are laws that
criminalize child prostitution; however, the law was not enforced
effectively, and child prostitution was widespread. The presence of an
estimated 30 thousand street children in During the year the
government continued implementation of a strategy to provide shelter and
protection to street children, including prostitutes. The Ministry of Labor
reported that the majority of the five thousand children removed from child
labor during the year were street children. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 6 June 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/zambia2003.html [accessed 9 March
2011] [36] The Committee
notes the information that children deprived of a family environment (orphans
and other vulnerable children) should be cared for by the extended family and
that foster care is supported by special fees paid to foster parents, but the
Committee is concerned that these forms of alternative care are not
sufficiently encouraged and supported. [68] The Committee
expresses grave concern at the high and increasing number of street
children. In particular, the Committee
notes their limited access to health, education and other basic social
services as well as their vulnerability to police brutality, sexual abuse and
exploitation. Street kids – a
major problem in Southern Province [accessed 18 August
2011] Mr Hakayobe said
some of the households in rural and peri-urban areas were living in absolute
poverty and did not have access to the basic needs such as food, clothing and
shelter. The Permanent Secretary said
as a result of increased poverty in many households, children and youths had
been forced to live and work on the street.
Mr Hakayobe said this had exposed youths to bad vices such as child
prostitution, early pregnancies and marriages resulting in most of them
contracting HIV/AIDS. UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/78686/zambia-government-fails-to-break-the-street-kid-addiction [accessed 22
February 2015] Moses Phiri, 15, is
one of thousands of OhmyNews,
2008-January-08 english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=381416&rel_no=1 [accessed 18 August
2011] Most of the
children face a bleak future, without parents to care for them and with
little, if any, assistance offered by the government. The children are often traumatized by the
death of parents, stigmatized through association with HIV and often thrown
into desperate poverty by the loss of breadwinners. They live under enormous
pressure and suffer depression and other psychological problems. Young girls, in particular, are the first
to be denied educational opportunities in favor of boys and are forced into
early marriages with older men, which put them at higher risk of HIV
infection. Children, both girls and boys, turn to the streets in search of a
better life but the reality that confronts them can only be described as
grim. Street life creates extreme vulnerability to violence, exploitative and
hazardous labor, sex-work and trafficking. The Times of streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/zambia-k39-billion-for-street-kids-programme-paid-out/ [accessed 15 January
2017] "The ministry
has so far removed 52 children in various streets of The other 398
children were removed from the streets of Shelter that gives
hope to Marriane Pallister,
The Herald www.heraldscotland.com/shelter-that-gives-hope-to-africa-s-street-children-1.857922 [accessed 18 August
2011] Never say that they
have nowhere to go. They still dream about becoming future leaders who'll be
respected some time in their lives. It becomes so painful for them when they
see their friends being taken to school and this makes them feel bad and
neglected. Probably they'll
start thinking of going back home. Unfortunately, they find it hard to leave
the street because they're wed to street life. Lubuto Libraries
Provide Haven for AIDS Orphans, Street Children Louise Fenner,
Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), US Department of State
USINFO, media-newswire.com/release_1049265.html [accessed 18 August
2011] Meyers, an American
librarian who spent many years in State Aims to
Remove 6,000 Children From the Streets The Times of This article has
been archived by World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible
[here] [accessed 18 August
2011] Billboards to
educate the public on the negative effects of encouraging street children
through alms-giving would be erected in many places, the minister said. She also said the
Government would enforce laws regarding child labour and would continue
rounding up the children to engage them in productive ventures while others
would be taken to reformatory schools. "Above all, as
a Government, we shall address the root causes that have made children go to
the streets mainly through empowering programmes after identifying families
where these children are coming from. UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/61461/zambia-getting-street-kids-to-stay-on-the-straight-and-narrow [accessed 22
February 2015] Dressed in baggy
trousers, caps and colourful T-shirts, the toughened teens of the "Back
to School Project" were scared.
The boys, all between the ages of 14 and 18, live on the streets of Efforts to
Rehabilitate Street Children Welcome EDITORIAL, The Times
of [accessed 15 January
2017] Some have suggested
that one of the ways to solve the problem is to punish negligent parents.
Another way to tackle the problem would be to improve social amenities in the
country where most children could spend their pass time. It is more
practical to invest in structures which syphon children from the streets than
simply donating clothing and foodstuffs for them." Michael Wines, New
York Times, www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/world/africa/24iht-web.0824zambia.2574785.html [accessed 18 August
2011] The boulders here
are hard enough that the scavengers who have taken over the abandoned quarry
south of downtown prefer not to strike them directly with their hammers. They heat the rocks first - with flaming
tires, scrap plastic, even old rubber boots - so that the stones will
fracture more easily. At dusk, when
three or four blazes spew choking black clouds across the huge pit, the
quarry looks like a woodcut out of Dante.
A boy named Alone Banda works in this purgatory six days a week. Nine years old,
nearly lost in a hooded sweatshirt with a skateboarder on the chest, he takes
football-size chunks of fractured rock and beats them into powder. Lacking a hammer, he uses a thick steel
bolt gripped in his right hand. In a
good week, he says, he can make enough powder to fill half a bag. His grandmother, Mary Mulelema, sells each
bag, to be used to make concrete, for 10,000 kwacha, less than $3. Often, she
said, it is the difference between eating and going hungry. Zambian gov't plans
to recruit 1,000 children living on streets Xinhua News Agency,
August 14, 2006 english.people.com.cn/200608/14/eng20060814_292990.html [accessed 18 August
2011] The Zambian
government is planning to recruit about 1,000 children living on streets
countrywide next month in an effort to address the social problem caused by
poverty and widespread HIV/AIDS, The Post quoted an official as reporting on
Monday. "There is so
much interest now as more children want to be removed from the streets and
integrated into these programs," Bobby Samakai, permanent secretary of
the Sport, Youth and Child Development Ministry, was quoted as saying. There are
altogether 15 camps allocated in the country's nine provinces providing basic
skill training to the recruited street children, said Samakai, adding that
the criterion was to take the most vulnerable who had no parents and nowhere
to go first. Committee
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights reviews initial report of Zambia Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights OHCHR, 27 April 2005 www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=384&LangID=E [accessed 20
September 2011] RESPONSE BY
DELEGATION
- Concerning the State party's measures to deal with the crisis of widows,
orphans, child-headed households and street children, the delegation drew
attention to the Micro Bankers Trust which was created in collaboration with
the Government and other partners to provide small loans to poor but viable
groups of people in order to support their various businesses or income
generating activities. The Public Welfare Assistance Scheme assisted the most
vulnerable groups of persons in society in order to meet their basic needs,
particularly in health, education, food and shelter. The Government's support
to street children was provided through District Street Children Committees
that implemented street children's activities. ANDnetwork .com,
July 15, 2006 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/07/15/zambian-street-children-a-time-bomb/ [accessed 15 January
2017] The problem of
street children requires economic solutions, Restoration Ministries Reverend
Cyril Phiri has observed. Reverend Phiri
who runs a number of christian orphanages in Reformed Street Kid
Embraces New Life Abigail Chisenga,
The Post, streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/07/14/reformed-street-kid-embraces-new-life/ [accessed 15 January
2017] A young man in Dulu Chipampa, 22,
who is now a reformed adult and employed by Beautiful Gates, a
non-governmental organisation (NGO) assisting to rehabilitate street children
in Kitwe, says it is difficult for him to believe that he has come this far. Chitoba Expresses
Concern Over Drug Abuse Among Street Children Inonge Noyoo, The
Post, This article has
been archived by World Street Children News and may possibly still be
accessible there [accessed 18 August
2011] "The vulnerable
children are one group which is prone to drug abuse under the influence of
substances such as Genkem, Bolstick and these substances have serious effects
to their mental development. The commission is working with government
departments and NGOs to address the plight of vulnerable children on the
street who are abusing substances that are not listed on the schedule such as
genkem, bbolstick and alcohol," he said. Chitoba said the
commission has plans to put up a rehabilitation center for street children to
undergo treatment without being pressurized into relapse by older street
kids. He said drug abuse and trafficking has continued to negatively impact
on the lives of children on and off the street. Aids will orphan
20% of children by 2015 South African Press
Association SAPA & Deutsche Presse-Agentur (German Press Agency) DPA, At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 18 August
2011] By 2015 about 20%
of SOS
Children: SOS Children’s
Villages www.street-children.org.uk/african-street-children/zambia [accessed 18 August
2011] • Over 30% of all children under the
age of 15 are orphans Zambia-s 1.5
million street children Timothy
Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda, August 2, 2002 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2002/08/02/p175/ [accessed 18 August
2011] One and a half million children in AIDS Orphans Join
The Rank Of Street Children Jowie Mwiinga, Inter
Press Service IPS, www.aegis.com/news/ips/1999/IP991208.html [accessed 18 August
2011] www.ipsnews.net/1999/12/health-zambia-aids-orphans-join-the-rank-of-street-children/ [accessed 15 January
2017] They swarm the central business
district of Lusaka like invading locust, hungry, aggressive and
destructive. They move around in
menacing little bands, darting away for cover when the police appear, only to
re-emerge with renewed determination when the coast is clear. They are Street Children
High On Sewage Ishbel Matheson in news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/406067.stm [accessed 18 August
2011] At the Sex work rife among
street children UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks IRIN PlusNews, www.irinnews.org/report/36024/zambia-sex-work-rife-among-street-children [accessed 22 February
2015] Commercial sex work has become
increasingly common among children aged 14 to 16. When educated about the danger of HIV/AIDS,
they say that AIDS is something in the future and that their hunger is a more
real and pressing need. Challenges 2004-2005:
For Zarina Geloo, Inter
Press Service News Agency IPS, www.ipsnews.net/2004/12/challenges-2004-2005-for-zambiarsquos-street-kids-the-outlook-is-bleak/ [accessed 11
Aug 2013] The United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) estimates that there are currently over 75,000 children living on
the streets of Another 16-year-old, Masuzyo Muhango
– said to be the "longest-serving" street child on "Before we were like a family.
I remember some boys would look after me on the streets; we would share
whatever food we scavenged and sometimes buy each other clothes," she
observes, adding, "But these same boys now want to beat me up and rape
me if I do not hand over my days takings. It’s because it is difficult to
find money: that’s why our co-operation has broken down and it’s
dog-eat-dog." As Adults Lose
Jobs, Children Bring in Wages Joe Chilaizya, Inter
Press Service News Agency IPS, pangaea.org/street_children/africa/zambia.htm [accessed 18 August
2011] Of the male
population aged seven and above, 57% are engaged in an economic
activity. The ballooning problem of
child labor is attributed to rising job losses among parents as companies
buckle in HIV/AIDS and Child
Labor In Zambia: A Rapid Assessment on the case of the Lusaka, Copperbelt and
Eastern Provinces International Labour
Organization (ILO) / International Labour Organization (ILO) , 2003 www.eldis.org/assets/Docs/13864.html At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly also be accessible [here] [accessed 2 October
2011] Job types: vending
on the street and in markets, quarrying and stone breaking, fetching water,
porterng (kuzezera), household chores or domestic work, digging wells and
garbage pits, carpentry, cooking nshima in the markets, cutting grass,
picking bottles, and prostitution earnings: the financial contributions of
the child were often the only income their families had. Street Children
From Other Towns Flood Livingstone Mcdonald Chipenzi,
The Post, allafrica.com/stories/200504100144.html [partially accessed
18 August 2011] Livingstone has
experienced an influx of economic street children from other towns. Most of them were being sent by parents to
beg on the streets to support their families. The Protection
Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/zambia.doc [accessed 2009] FACTORS THAT
CONTRIBUTE TO THE TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - HIV/AIDS, coupled with poverty,
has contributed to the proliferation of street children and child labor in Information about
Street Children - www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/Zambia%20Child.doc [Last access date
unavailable] Background: 47% of
the population under 18; life expectancy at birth is 37 years; estimated
75,000 street children in 1996; HIV prevalence rate of 20% for adults between
the ages of 15 and 49; estimated number of orphans between 600,000 and 1.2
million. Street children are very mobile between cities; All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Street Children - |
